


Marked

by misbehavingvigilante



Series: reaper76 week [5]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dishonored AU, M/M, Reaper76 Week, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-20
Updated: 2017-01-20
Packaged: 2018-09-18 20:56:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9402581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misbehavingvigilante/pseuds/misbehavingvigilante
Summary: People say all kinds of things about those marked by Reaper.That you can see the void behind their eyes, that you can smell it on them like cold wind and moon dust.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is day 6 of r76 week In Another Life - Alternate Universe/Timeline. I wasn't able to managed anything for day 5 putting this together. 
> 
> Anyways, for anyone who might be afraid of spoilers for Dishonored or Dishonored 2, I'm pretty sure I've kept everything vague. There are references but without being familiar with the games it shouldn't spoil anything, I think? I'm not one hundred percent sure, so it's that a concern this might not be the story for you. 
> 
> Regardless, I pretty much threw this together in a day. It's not going to be perfect, there are probably a few things I got wrong from Dishonored universe, and some of them I just changed for narrative purposes so it's not going to be a strict canon to au given that. If you're unfamiliar with the Dishonored series, I think I've managed to write everything in a way that it should be understood. But again, I'm not one hundred percent sure on this so if you're curious about something just ask. 
> 
> If my description is lacking as I know it's something I struggle with, [this](http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/dishonoredvideogame/images/a/ad/Far_reach_trailer.png/revision/latest?cb=20150615162502) is how I'm trying to describe the ability called far reach, and [this](http://www.gamersheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Dishonored-2-Outsider-Shrine-Location-Guide-900x506.jpg) is what a shrine is supposed to look like. 
> 
> I think that's everything. If I need to tag anything let me know and enjoy, I guess?

People say all kinds of things about those marked by Reaper.

That you can see the void behind their eyes, that you can smell it on them like cold wind and moon dust. Truth is most people can’t discern that difference unless you’ve been marked or if you’re one of Talon.

Talon has always stood against Reaper, the best mortals can that is. The ancient music is probably the most effective weapon available given it stops all manner of supernatural powers and even harms anything remotely supernatural. Even to those without any abilities, it’s still awful, discordant music.

Even before being marked, Jack had never cared too much for Talon. They always seem quick to label anyone a heretic without little proof or only on sworn accounts of those faithful without even a trial granted before their sentence was served. And most often for the worship of Reaper or anything even vaguely related to him, the sentence was death.

It had been a bit haunting to see public executions like that when he’d been younger, but he had little power to stop it. After all, most people didn’t listen to children. They dismissed them without a second thought.  

But Jack hadn’t been as easily dismissed given he was a noble, his family was in good standing and easily had a vast fortune to their name. The wrong reaction to him could have consequences given Talon liked to court aristocrats into joining their cause because their funding had to come from somewhere after all.

And when funding wasn’t desired, the connections that nobles offered were.

Back then, when Jack had been naïve and innocent like children should be of cruelty, he assumed that he had saved those who had been accused. Never the wiser to the fact, Talon still hunted them down just not as publicly.

It was a habit that his parents had tried to break him off particularly as he had gotten older. It wasn’t merely because his actions caused a scene, and there was nothing worse in their world than causing a scene, was there? But also for the very real fear of what such sympathy for heretics may be viewed as. Even then, Jack had always thought Talon was scarier than Reaper.

His parents had wrongly believed he became well behaved as he entered adulthood, the truth was Jack had just grown more careful. Clever, even, when he wanted to do something that high society would frown upon all days but fugue feast.

His interest in salon fencing for example had been less out of a talent to show off during parties or something to brag about that might make him a better match for marriage and more to do with wanting to be able to fight.

Of course such redefined moves would surely give away his upper class bringing even if he wore commoner clothes, meaning he’d be ousted as an aristocratic thrill seeker if did… Jack wasn’t sure what he wanted to do exactly just that it didn’t seem to align with any of the given paths he should have been on.

It’s that night that Reaper appeared in his dreams for the very first time.

The void is exactly how it’s described by those who have glimpsed at through a near death experience. It’s isles of a sheen back substance, with a cold wind howling throughout and a faint light from a moon casting light into the smoky world within it.

It’s hazy and strange, and completely different than anything that Jack has experienced that he doesn’t even see Reaper, but hears him first.

“You know, I didn’t expect you to catch my attention.” That voice is alluring and terrifying in the same breath. It makes you want to listen but a part of one is a little bit frightened by how inhuman it sounds. “I don’t much care for nobles, you all never seem content with all you have and always want more at the expense of others. As if anyone should really have so much to begin with.”

Something shifts, it’s as if the Void is heavier and suddenly there’s a presence in front of him. There’s no real way to mistake Reaper for a man despite having similar features. A body built by strength judging by the muscles seen through the black cloak that covered him in most places, the rest was covered by dark skin that was marred by light scars in some places.  But Reaper had too many and too red eyes for a man and an aura of smoke that came off him adding to his otherworldly image.

Jack blinked, he should be more frightened. Maybe a part of him is a little afraid, it’d be hard not to with judgement coming down like that. It does really seem like Reaper detest nobles ordinarily, perhaps there really was a reason why so many people who were accused of worshiping him were of the lower class.

Honestly, Jack hadn’t given it much thought perhaps he should have.

“But still, you’re not as bad as the rest of your kind. I wonder if I had just waited a few years how you would have turned out, but you’re interesting now. You may not be later so I won’t wait any longer.”

Should he speak? Jack felt like he was young again and someone was going to shush him if he even tried to talk but still, he wanted to ask. “You’ve been watching me?”  

Reaper regard him with a head tilt that seems slightly alien in nature. “I have insight into the world you’re from, I don’t see all, but I see enough. How did you think I chose? That I just dragged random mortals down into the Void to see within them?”

“Well…” Jack didn’t have an answer. He considered himself very well read when it came to Reaper. His fortune had definitely helped afford that luxury being able to own what books had been published about Reaper. There were very few, Talon didn’t allow many reading materials that weren’t sanctioned by them to get to the public, but they couldn’t stop all of them.

Even then, the best information about Reaper had always come from diaries. From accounts from people he’d spoken to before, but those were even harder to find.

“No one knows everything about me, and no one will.” Reaper said, sounding a bit bored. “It’s best to let go of those thoughts now, Jack. That isn’t the choice I’m offering you today, anyways.”

“Yes.” Jack knew he was jumping the gun, but he couldn’t stop himself.

He knew what Reaper was offering, everyone knew regardless of it they actually believed Reaper was real or just an imaginary villain that Talon liked to pin things on because in all the stories it was mentioned.

There were a few people walking the world with a mark hidden upon their skin, hard but not impossible to pass off as a tattoo or merely a strange birthmark. A mark that connected them to the void, granting them an iota of its power, of magic to wield in their hands.

His excitement caused Reaper to chuckle. “This should be entertaining, at least.”

At that, Jack’s hand started to burn, it was unlike anything he felt before. It burnt from within spreading to the surface an eerie red outlining the now black mark on his hand. As the red faded, Jack felt something… something more.

Reaper vanished smoke, and remnants of what the black isles were made of surrounding where he once was. The next isle was some distance away, too far to reach but something told him he could bridge that distance.

The mark roared to life, glimmering red as inky, black tendrils encircled around his arm below his mark up until his shoulder, and one wrapped itself under his hand allowing him to grasp at the strange substance. Where Jack had visualized before, suddenly he was being propelled forward into the air, feeling the great nothing below him before reaching the next isle.

His feet and his stomach were unsteady with the distortion guiding him through the gap like that.

“That was amazing.” Jack exclaimed, a little breathlessly from the display. It wasn’t teleportation, he hadn’t moved from one spot to another without actually travelling it. But still, how incredible was it to travel such distance, in such a short time!

Jack looked around looking for the next isle finding nothing remotely he could reach, even with this new ability until he looked up. Well, if he could go forward, perhaps he could go up as well?

That was enough thought for the mark to hum back to life, and the tendrils to come back out again propelling him upwards this time. The downside of that discovery came with nearly losing his dinner with how dizzy and disorientated he felt.

Magic it seemed was useful, but it didn’t mean his body was naturally attuned to it. Maybe with use, the side effects would become less or it would be something he just had to bear.

In all of the stories, what exactly the price paid was vague. All except in the stories that Talon told, and Jack doubted the veracity of those a great deal. They spoke of the marked of Reaper becoming something monstrous, something inhuman attacking anything at all that breathed driven mad by the void’s corrupting touch.

After a few moments of recovery, Jack began again, bridging more isles with no real destination in order. It was nice to simply adjust to this ability, he wasn’t sure how he might use it when he got back to his world.

“That’s of interest to myself, too.” Reaper appeared once more, above him on some perch carved out of the sheen black substance that appeared throughout the void curving like a tree branch would almost. “But that’s enough for today. You’ll return to your world when you awaken. I know you know of my shrines, but this time if you arrive at one, I may just answer.”

 

 

 

Jack jolted out of bed, the dream fresh in his mind searching his hand immediately to see if it was real. The mark was still present, black against his white skin looking innocuous like this, like it really could just be a tattoo.

But even without calling upon that power, Jack could feel something different within him now. There was something else – the void – now residing within him, making a home of his bones. He had heard of bone charms, artifacts that bestowed a single blessing. Many sailors had taken to them for facing all the wrath that the seas offered.

Jack wondered, what power could his bones bestow, if any? But that was probably a much too morbid thought for the morning.

He needed to get ready, think of some excuse he could have for wrapping his hand so he could hide the mark. Jack knew better than to rely on his charms to explain it away, some would buy it either not all that interested to begin with or just that gullible, others wouldn’t be nearly as easy to fool.

It’s undressing from his sleep clothes to something more suiting for the day’s attire that Jack noticed something on his arm. Residue from where the tendrils had embraced him during his ability. He really needs to think of a name for it, but that doesn’t take precedence at the moment.

Jack rubbed at the residue with his hands, it didn’t seem to want to come off, staining like ink from some sea creature. Even a cloth damp with water does little to dull it, but it has some effect. A thorough cleaning would be in order, Jack had thought he wouldn’t need one together given he taken one just yesterday but it doesn’t seem wise to leave it on his skin.

He doesn’t need a mark and this leftover residue to cover even if his arms were going to be covered anyways. Jack doesn’t need anyone finding out he’s been marked and it’s been less than a single day.

 

 

 

An itch under his skin happened a few days after he hasn’t used his new found power, far reach Jack decided to call it because why not just keep it simple? Still, it’s hard to ignore the rising irritation within him, it’s making him a bit snappish which isn’t fair to those surrounding him.

Jack decided to take a walk, see if that might clear his head any. He’s been trying to decide what to do with the power he’s been given. Reaper hadn’t really said what to do, it didn’t seem like he would comment on such things, even.

Still, some direction would be nice.

As if on cue, Jack hears something. It gives off an unusual hum, familiar yet foreign but he follows it all the same. There’s many places in Gristol, he hasn’t visited before, it isn’t strange given it’s the biggest of all the isles, and half the people live here.

Still, the shop is something alright. Small, homey, yet incredible fragrant even before he had entered the shop, the wafts of its scents could be smelled. It probably helped attract customers like that.

It reminds Jack of Serkonos, famed for all its spiced cuisine, always smelling pleasant despite the threat of bloodflies down south.

“Hello.” A woman greeted him, her dark hair braided and a tattoo under her eye, she took a long look at him. Maybe it’s because he’s been better dressed than most people around these parts.

Jack probably should have paid attention to that, that wasn’t very smart drawing attention like that.

“You seem lost.”

“I guess I took a different path than normal.” Honestly, Jack couldn’t really even remember seeing much on the way here too distracted by that humming which was much louder now.

“That’s not quite how I meant.” She answered, seeming amused. “You’re a bit different than his usual picks.”

There’s no room for misinterpretation.

“Are you…?”

“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “I told him no. He hasn’t let me forget that, but I don’t need the trouble a mark invites into your life. Still, like lost sheep, they all seem to end up here. Perhaps it’s my punishment, he can be a bit petty.”

“I’m Jack.” Jack offered, because it seems rude not to particularly when they’re exchanging all this personal information.

“Ana.” She answered. “We can talk over tea. You can reimburse me for the lost wages while the shop is closed, I’m sure.”

“Of course.”

 

 

 

“Well.” Ana sipped the last sip from her cup, sitting it down gently before meeting Jack’s eyes again. “I believe I understand what you want, you seek justice which is admirable. Many people like you don’t, but have you considered that you can do much more good in your position rather than needing to do anything else?”

That wasn’t the answer Jack had been hoping for, still he listened. Waiting for Ana to elaborate on what she meant.

“You can change many more minds during your parties than you could by covering your face and tackling injustice in the streets. In fact, you might make things worse if you do that anyways. You want to help, but you know nothing about how people below you really live, do you?”

This excursion away from the usual streets he always walked down was probably the deepest he ventured in years to this part of town. His parents never let him go anywhere like this when he was younger and unsupervised except for a very rare occasion most of his interactions with anyone deemed lower class came through servants and their families.

Jack had always minded them and never treated them badly, at least, never thought he treated them badly compared to the outright hostility and disregard many nobles had for them.

“I never thought about that.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Ana didn’t sound surprised. “Sometimes you don’t realize things until someone else points them out to you because you’ve never had to consider them before. You know you’re in a position of great privilege but you seem so eager to throw that away because you think you’re not like the rest of them. But you’ve never spent any time down here, have you?”

Jack’s quiet contemplation is stopped by a loud call for mom said by a child’s voice. It seemed to be coming from above them, there was a staircase that Jack had saw before he had been guided into a small kitchen to sit down by Ana.

“My daughter.” Ana smiled fondly. “I’ve told her not to run downstairs when I have company, seems she actually listened this time. She has quite the lungs on her. Excuse me for a moment.”

Ana stood instead of just moving to the stairs to see what Fareeha had wanted, she paused for a moment before heading to the cabinets. Drawing out a circular container and removing some sweets to reward Fareeha with instead.  

“What took you so long?” Fareeha asked upon seeing her mother.

“Ask such questions like that and I’ll eat these myself.” Ana showed off the sweets in her hands, Fareeha’s favorite as a threat.

Fareeha made a whining before giving a quiet apology.

“Much better.” Ana chuckled, gifting them to Fareeha who hugged her in return. “Now just give me a few more minutes and we can spend some more time together.”

“Okay!” Fareeha grinned, excitedly returning to her room with sweets in her pockets.

Ana hadn’t even made it back to the table before Jack had a question for her.

“Is she why you said no?”

It wasn’t really any of Jack’s business, but Ana would give him the truth. “Yes.” She nodded, sitting down again. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my daughter, I believe that’s why I gained his attention in the first place. There was a time before this where I made difficult choices for her continued safety and health. As much as it would have been a boon, as I’ve told you, trouble follows the mark. I wanted none of that for my daughter.”

“I wasn’t even aware you could refuse. It doesn’t seem like…”

“You should?” Ana finished for Jack who simply nodded in agreement. “He can give off that impression, but you’re allowed to tell him no. He’ll respect you for it, he just may also make your life a little more difficult for it, too.”

There’s never been a time where Ana regretted her decision though so she knew she made the right call. “Still, all I have in his whispers in my ears sometimes. I’ve told him to stop visiting me in my dreams, I’m a mother, and I don’t get enough sleep as it is.”

Jack laughed at that, it was funny to think about anyone demanding anything of Reaper from what he’d seen, but still, he didn’t get the impression Ana was lying either.

“I wouldn’t push your luck, though.” Ana added, she didn’t want to give Jack the wrong idea and get him killed by thinking he could make demands of Reaper like she could. “I think he just has a weakness for mothers. Though speaking of that, you’ve seen all the elixirs around my shop, yes?”

“They’re hard to miss.” Jack hadn’t seen a lot of what Ana offered in her shop, having being ushered in the back after a brief conversation. But there were what looking to be all sort of healing elixirs for all kinds of aliments. One that could promote sleep, or help heal wounds quicker.

“That’s true.” Ana gladly displayed most of her wares, after all. “But keep in mind those very same elixirs that can heal can be used to poison you. The right mixture or the right dosage and I can remove you from this world with you never realizing. It’s important to remember that if you think of causing me or my daughter any harm. Reaper’s mark will not keep you from death if I am after you.”

Jack gulped anxiously, not really managing any words just shaking his head vigorously in understanding.

“Great.” Ana smiled bright like she hadn’t just threatened him. “Then let me teach you about bone charms. I’m sure that’s what you heard that brought you here in the first place. Next time we can arrange a visit about elixirs so you don’t kill yourself or someone else by using the wrong one.”

 

 

 

His talk with Ana is very enlightening. Jack is glad to have met her but it doesn’t get rid of the itch under his skin. It’s tamed of course since she gifted him a bone charm still singing its song whilst it’s tucked into one of his pockets.

She promised him that if he need to use his ability, that no one would be able to see him during the traversal. That it would appear to all eyes that he simply disappeared and appeared in another spot though that wasn’t actually how far reach worked. Ana had said, it was an especially powerful bone charm much more like a disc, than the standard bone charms that were angled like a tube of lipstick but bone white with an eerie glow.

All the talk of bone charms had been especially helpful but Jack was seeking out a shrine now. Shrines had runes on them, large things crafted of bone with Reaper’s mark upon them.

Bone charms could be crafted by just about anyone with the knowledge, no supernatural inclination needed. But runes? Runes were a different story, even those who had the magical ability didn’t always have the ability to craft them making them rare and perfect offering for any shrine of Reaper.

Many of his class liked to pretend they were above such worship, often boasting such things in public only to privately worship instead. That’s how Jack had first come upon a shrine in the first place.

In the home of an upper class, well perhaps a bit unusual. Reinhardt Wilhelm did have a fortune to his name, having come from the working class and made his way made some people less likely to accept them truly as one of their class as he hadn’t been born into it. The man was large with a booming voice but never unkind.

Jack had barely been a boy of thirteen coming across the shrine, transfixed and drawn in. Feeling the coldness of the heavy runes in his hands and having recognized the mark from the stories.

Of course, Jack only had a moment around the shrine before heavy footsteps had driven him from the room. Still, he had never forgotten the shrine, always sneaking away to it whenever Reinhardt had thrown a party which wasn’t as often as many people as he preferred to use his fortune to help people than to waste on opulent parties.

Jack went through his invitations as he had returned home, remembering vaguely or perhaps just hoping there was one from Reinhardt.

To his luck there was.

 

 

 

The shrine was still there, the runes let out their own song similar to the bone charms but like a hissing sound almost. Jack wasn’t certain if the shrine was still going to be here, he hadn’t seen Reinhardt in nearly a year. Shirking a lot of invitations recently that hadn’t been great for his social standing if the whispers behind his back was anything to go by.

But still, here was a shrine, here was a way to talk with Reaper again.

Jack ran his hands over the cold runes again, but something else ran through him this time. There was a touch of something else from beyond reaching for him, or rather reacting to him.

In an instant it seemed, he was back in the void again.

“It doesn’t go away if you were wondering. That touch of the void I gave will always be there rumbling under your skin begging for you to draw out its power.”

Jack had wondered about that. “You sent me to Ana.”

“I didn’t do anything. You can hear the hums and hisses of bone charms and runes now. You could have just as easily ignored it. Curiously enough some people who bear my mark just stop there. They never seek me out again, content with the power I gifted them or more likely they regret saying yes because they feel it in their skin how very different they are now.”

Reaper smiled and like his eyes, it’s too many teeth but they’re also far too sharp too. Seeming like one of those creatures from the deep that have needle thin and sharp teeth.

“So you get closer to the void with each power?”

“In a way.” Reaper answered cryptically. “But here you are again. Tell me, Jack. Have your plans change? Do you still think my gifts are the best way you can help people?”

“I don’t regret it if that’s what you’re asking. I met Ana because of you and she’s nice. I didn’t know people could turn you down.”

“Ana was a surprise. She was the first that has said no to me in centuries.”

Somewhere Jack had known that Reaper was far older than he looked, but still that had made him curious. “How old are you exactly?”

Reaper’s face was free of wrinkles but for some supernatural creature being or god depending on the books you went with, it didn’t seem odd at all he could hid his real age. Or simply not age at all.

There was dark facial hair on him, making him look at least from human perception several years older than him. His features were too defined to be anything other than adult well into their twenties, at least. Maybe even thirties.

“Isn’t that rude?” Reaper asked, looking a bit puzzled. “I mean, I’m not human, but from what I know that’s rude, isn’t it?”

“For the most part.” Jack agreed, he probably shouldn’t have asked. But how exactly to navigate talking with something like Reaper was still up in the air. Ana had told him to be cautious, that he wouldn’t as forgiving with him as he was with her. “Do you like Ana?”

“She’s interesting. She has a past that most people wouldn’t expect. She said no when I offered her an incredible amount of power. But like? Do you have some delusion that I have some sort of romantic interest in her?”

Well, maybe a tiny part of him had wondered. Jack couldn’t help it, Ana seemed like a person that Reaper would like more than someone like him who was lucky to even be considered in the first place given his background.

Reaper chuckled, deep and inhumanely as he appeared even closer to Jack, frightening the blond a little with how he jumped. “How quaint. I’m sure she described me as petty, she could have been beautiful with the void in her, that’s true.”

Reaper walked around Jack, not facing him as he considered his next words. “But it is not something you force on someone. Talon may call me a monster, but I am not that kind of monster that robs someone of choice.”

The void seem darker for a moment, the light barely there at all like a candle in a house full of darkness. “I… Reaper?”

“Does that answer your question? I’ve entertained you enough.”

“Yes.” Jack said though he would have liked to talk more. It seemed best not to overstay his welcome.

 

 

 

Things shifted suddenly and with a great deal of disorientation, Jack ended up back in the shrine room.

The purple and gold cloth covering the small table was empty with the runes no longer covering it, the wood and barbed wire that was strewn together just off center arching upwards in a v shaped pattern remained but looked darker than before somehow.

Out of nowhere, Jack found his eyes hurting turning from unpleasant to excruciating in mere moments forcing him to shut his eyes. Every area of his eyes hurt, it was as if something was burrowing into them, his hands how to grab the shrine for purchase to prevent himself from collapsing to the ground from pain.

Whether it was minutes or moments later, Jack wasn’t sure, all he knew was the pain became to lessen. It was only a mild discomfort now ringed around his irises.

Jack opened his eyes, cautiously, even the candles lit around the shrine seemed too bright for a moment but it was gone in an instant. He turned his back on the shrine, looking towards the exit only to find himself seeing red colored outlines through the walls.

Human shaped, with a lines of sights attached in a different shade of the same red.

Jack shut his eyes again, it was too much information all at once to process. The mark on his hand hummed contentedly though, for the first time in days the itch was there no longer.

That was an explanation in itself, then. Far reach had been disorientating but bearable but this extra sight had been very painful to incur. Perhaps this was the price people spoke of when bearing Reaper’s mark. Maybe the human body really wasn’t meant to act as a conduit for magic, at least not without suffering for it.

But Jack wasn’t ready to give up so easily. Far reach had gotten easier, so this new power would probably be the same.

Jack opened his eyes again and he couldn’t see through the walls. Apparently the power had come out without him reaching for it making him wonder if he had to worry about an accidental power usage. Maybe it was just a one time, Jack thought hopefully.

Calling on the sight again, Jack saw the glow behind the wrapping on his hand alight once more with use. Eyes on his hand revealed that unseen to him had been smoke shrouding his marked hand. He looked to his other one, seeing nothing surrounding that one.

Maybe there really was something to the smell of the void on people, after all.

It was only when he looked at his surroundings that he took in the red highlighted feature in the doorway. Reinhardt looked distorted like this, features faint under the unnatural glow but still present.

“I…” Jack tried to think of an excuse for being here. Typically, he was much quicker on his feet than this with his words. But there was still the discomfort twitching behind his eyes that made it harder to think.

“Oh, Jack.” Reinhardt clasped his large hand on his shoulder, smiling down at him. “I always knew it was you. It never bothered me. It’s not as if I was surprised. You really were an outspoken child.”

Jack blinded, reeling in that information as the red hue on the world faded and it became to look normal again. “I should have said something.”

“Well, that might have been nice but I knew given time we would have this conversation so it was of no concern to me.”

Reinhardt had always been very pleasant to talk to. Jack didn’t know why out of all people he hadn’t at least seen this man. “Could we talk sometime? Not during some party but privately? Lately I’ve been questioning my path… I feel like if we talked you might be able to put me on a path more to my liking.”

“Of course, my friend!” Reinhardt boomed, seeming genuinely excited at the prospect. “Just a note, though. Be careful using your gifts. Ana did not gift you a charm that could hide what that vision does to your eyes.”

“What does it do?” Jack hadn’t thought to look in a mirror, though one had been around.

“They flicker red.” Reinhardt sounded serious for a moment, but in the next it was gone. “But come back to the party, your absence has been missed enough. And our associates have talked enough behind your back for one evening.”

Red like Reaper’s own eyes… that was something to keep in mind. “Yes, of course…. Wait, you know Ana?”

Reinhardt gave a hearty laugh. “There’s a lot you don’t know, it seems.”

 

 

 

In the following years, Jack Morrison goes on to make a name for himself. Separating himself further from his family who for generations had mostly followed the same paths by becoming a well-spoken advocate for many worker’s causes such as the plights of the mine workers.

Which was of little surprise given one of Jack’s closest friends was one Reinhardt Wilhelm who had come up from working in the mines to becoming a baron but never forgetting his roots. Always kind and considerate to the workers all throughout the isles.

Even one Ana Amari, who only a few years previously had been a name that hadn’t been very commonly heard had become quite popular. With Jack’s financial support and her deep knowledge of medicine she had begun to have quite an effort on residences of the Gristol particularly those less fortunate who often couldn’t afford the best health care.

Torbjörn Lindholm had been another close friend. An eccentric yet brilliant short statured inventor who changed helped an entire age be brought forward with all his mechanical know how.

There were always whispers though, particularly from Talon who had a long standing feud with Jack Morrison that he’d been marked by Reaper, but no one could ever prove it.

 

 

 

Most people who heard a noise in their house dismissed it as one of the staff, or simply a house setting. Jack wasn’t very much a normal person anymore, upon hearing a noise, he often checked with his dark vision, scoping out the environment in case anyone was around that couldn’t be.

But in the last couple of years his choices hadn’t always made him popular, on more than a few occasions an assassin had tried to claim his life. No doubt part of the reason that Talon was suspicious about him was their repeated failures.

Publically, Jack had a bodyguard that took all the credit for such endeavors. But still that didn’t seem enough to get rid of the rumors regardless of how he had tried.

Nothing showed at first, because his dark vision only had a certain area of effect. He couldn’t see on forever unlike someone he knew. But then there was a red highlighted shaped in the distance, Jack sighed. Flickering off his sight, and calling upon a new power to deal with the would be assassin well he headed to the other room to fetch something.

He watched as the assassin dropped down, readied a blade and stabbed him through the heart. Of course what the assassin hadn’t known was that was a doppelgänger, and when one perished a light smoke was left.

It confused and choked his enemies for a second or two long enough for him to shoot a sleep dart into their flesh. With moments, their unconscious slumped against the ground.

Jack rolled his eyes, this was the second time this month. Gristol was becoming increasingly unfriendly towards him and it seemed like a lot of what good could be done here had been but there was still three more isles in the Empire.

Ana had expressed an interest in returning to Serkonos, her homeland as she had left shortly after Fareeha had been born and wanted her daughter to see her homeland.

That might have not been a bad idea. Jack called in his bodyguard to help deal with the body as he headed to his own personal shrine. It hadn’t been very long since he had a conversation with Reaper. They talked more these days, having a full stock arsenal of the void flowing through him with many powers of varying uses meant he had no use of runes decorating the shrines.

They didn’t vanish any longer after visiting a shrine gifted him with a new ability or helped to further one along.

The pull into the void nowadays was welcoming, a lot of the times, Jack felt more at home there then in his own world. Though, he hadn’t voiced any of those thoughts.

The void came into the view looking the same it nearly had a decade ago when he first glimpsed it. Still pale moonlight acting as the only source of light, still a hazy smoke lingering in the air, and still the isles floating around as structures or in shards.

And there was Reaper, the embodiment of the Void as always looking half human, half otherworldly.

“So someone else tried to kill me today.” Jack started, no longer standing on ceremony and letting Reaper have the first word as it usually went. “Doppelgänger is a very useful ability. I’m glad you gave it to me.”

“What abilities what is able to draw from the void through my mark is dependent on that person.” It had been years, and there was still many things Jack only just learnt of the void and to that effect of Reaper.

It really hadn’t been a lie when Reaper said he would never know everything about him. Somehow the mystery suited him.  “Someone of your stature could use a body double. I know you’ve told me they employ them in your world where they are borne of flesh and blood rather than of smoke and will.”

“I believe there’s a duke down south that uses one if the rumors are true.”

“Oh, Jack. You have grown much more indirect since we’ve met.” Reaper had observed the changes in Jack since the void, since he had touched him all those years ago with something approaching glee.

Jack had grown crafty having to with all the secrets he kept, but he remained kind. His head had stay leveled and he had learnt to use his ears more often than simply assuming he knew what was best.

It would have been so easy for Jack to have taken his abilities and gone mad with power. It had happened before, anyone he marked that turned out like that, he immediately lost interest.

Often outright ignoring them if they tried to contact him, instead going on to whisper into someone’s ears who might be able to stop them. Reaper had never cared for a tyrant whether they wore a crown or if they wore his mark. It wasn’t a lie to say he didn’t control who lived and died like he had so many years ago, though.

He could merely point people in a path, the path they chose to take from then on was their own.

“You’ve certainly been an influence.” Jack had about to say a bad one, but Reaper wasn’t really bad nor good, instead the best way to describe him was neutral. “Serkonos seems welcoming.”

“There is someone I’ve been thinking of marking in Serkonos. He’s young.”

Jack title his head. “Shouldn’t you be telling Ana this? Or did see convince you that she needs all her time and energy to watch Fareeha since she’ll be a teenager soon?”

Ana hadn’t approached him about that particular subject yet, though Reaper knew worry was already on Ana’s mind about it.

She hadn’t mentioned it to him, still it was a good thing to pin on Ana rather than just admit he wanted more of an excuse to see Jack. “She told me you were like raising another child with all the things you didn’t know.”

Jack shrugged, he didn’t feel offended by that. “That’s probably true. You’re not marking someone too young are you?”

“He’s a little older than Fareeha. But I don’t believe you’ll reach Serkonos in enough time. You’ll enjoy Serkonos, Talon doesn’t have that isle in its clutches like Gristol.”

“That’s good at least.” Sometimes it could be easy to mistake Reaper for a human for how he converse, but as much as he had human emotion, there was an inhuman perception to him. “It’d be nice not to have to worry about a knife in my back.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s a gang there preventing Talon from swooping in and taking power. And they’re not known for liking nobles, so you’re just as likely to get a knife in your back from them. But there’s no ancient music to worry about.”

Jack shuddered. “I hate that music.”

“It is awful.” Reaper had heard a few chords himself even in the void, but it was too minute to bring him any real harm aside from annoying him. “There are many Serkonos songs you might enjoy, though. But I’ve seen you dance and you have no rhythm.”

Jack couldn’t help but to burst out laughing. “By the Void, if Talon ever captures me I’m going to tell them that Reaper made fun of me for not being able to dance to his high standards.”

Reaper rolled his eyes, not finding any amusement in that at all. More smoke than usual billowing off him given his mood. “It’s not my fault Gristol developed such stiff and formal dancing. Serkonos dancing is vivacious.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll pick up a dance or two so you’ll stop complaining. I don’t even know why it’s so important to you. Why do you care if I can dance a certain way?”

“Just go on and find a ship for Serkonos. I have another matters to attend.”

“Fancy way of saying you don’t want to talk about it and are being dramatic as always.” The first time that Jack had seen Reaper’s guise fall had been a bit terrifying, he had run his mouth and said something stupid and had earned the fright.

Now though as Reaper had appeared in front of him looking nothing but an otherworldly entity.

Gone was his vaguely human shaped and in its place stood a pitch black being. Reaper’s many eyes sunk into his skin, but moved past where his ears should have been appearing as only glowing red eyes with no solid shape to them. His mouth was more a maw extending past where a normal jaw would adorned with jagged teeth.  Instead of two, Reaper had six arms all with sharp, sharp claws at its end, smoke whisking off of them all.

In the center of Reaper’s chest was a large mouth with teeth sharp like a shark with black tendrils coming in and out of it, coated in thin, red substance. From waist down, Reaper’s form seemed less solid, much more like a wraith, a shadowy, smoky tail that they were famed to left behind.

Nowadays though this form didn’t faze him much. “You’re really only proving my point.”

The full weight of that many eyes rolling at them was harder to shrug off. “You can send me back now unless you wanted to do something else.”

It’s harder to read facial expressions like this, but the teeth glint into something resembling grin before a long, black tendril because it’s far too long to be called a tongue came from Reaper’s mouth. The one of his face, not on his stomach, goes to lick over his lips in the facsimile of a kiss.

Before Jack can even process that, he’s sent spiraling back to his own world.

Jack’s marked hand goes to reach over his lips, the mark glows faintly from the contact. Must be contact with Reaper who is the Void made whole has some reaction to it like using his powers.

Was that a kiss? Jack isn’t exactly sure given Reaper isn’t human so what something is to him versus what Jack can be different.

Still, it seems like one interpretation.

Jack smiled, he’ll view it as a kiss until or if Reaper corrects him.  


End file.
